


where your treasure is

by LocalVodkaAunt



Series: Tales of Suburbia [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, De-Aged Luffy, Gen, Luffy is like...7 or something, Pre-Slash, Suburbs, blink it and you'll miss it, rip Ace
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-27 07:58:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17158226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LocalVodkaAunt/pseuds/LocalVodkaAunt
Summary: This is the "Suburban Husbands" AU nobody asked for. Sabo and Ace moved into the suburbs to keep their little brother out of trouble, and really, they should have known better.Part1: The evening after the move, Ace wonders what the fuck his life has become.





	where your treasure is

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the Secret Santa Exchange on the SaboAce Discord. I tried to keep the angst out of it and I hoped it worked. 
> 
> Check out [esttian's](https://esttian.tumblr.com/) super cool art on tumblr, they are so talented!
> 
> As usual if you did like this (or didn't like this at all), drop me a line (or an emoji! I totally accept emojis).

The house is quiet around him. He is used to the sound of the ever ongoing traffic, sirens and squeaking tires in the night. No light falls through the window, and the concrete walls are still, no noises of settling wood or reflections of lanterns sliding over the green walls.

 

The shadows of the moving boxes scattered all over the floor look almost daunting in the darkness of the room. So much work left to do. Ace feels the weight of adulthood like a heavy weight on his shoulders. It’s not that he didn’t think about what he was getting them into. He just never expected it to be so...much. He feels like he is in a game of play pretend, where he acts like a grown up, says “please”, “thank you” and “excuse me”, signs forms and always pays his bills on time, but deep down he just wants to grab the nearest water gun and try to hit Luffy in a really embarrassing spot. For a short while he wonders if Sabo feels the same when he drops Luffy off at school in the morning or sits in parent-teacher-meetings, feeling the wondering looks from the other families on his back.

 

Then again, Sabo has never cared about anyone. Ever since they met, being himself has always been enough for him.

 

And now they have this house, with a lawn to mow, and Luffy in an expensive private school that doesn’t force him to sit still for eight hours of the day and for which Ace only had to sell his soul and join the police force like Garp always wanted.

 

It’s not bad. It’s what he wants. Just...strange. He didn’t use to have an idea what his adult life was going to be like, and now it’s exemplary in every kind of way.

 

Sighing, he draws the curtains of the living room window closed. It’s late already, way past Luffy’s bedtime and if they don’t get him to settle down soon, he’ll be insufferable tomorrow. He grabs the two copies of Treasure Island out of their backpacks. Reading Luffy a story is the best way to get him to sleep, and they have taken up reading in turn for their own enjoyment. Sabo and him even picked roles, with Sabo reading Long John Silver and Ace reading Doctor Livesey.

 

The rest of the house is as dark and untidy as the living room and somewhere between the bathroom and Sabo’s bedroom Ace manages to stumble over bags and toys, his way only illuminated by the faint light coming out of his bedroom. Luffy is talking, seemingly explaining something about freedom, how he never wants to have someone to tell him what to do anymore. He knows Sabo sympathizes, remembers all the nights they lay awake, dreaming of exactly the same thing.

 

“Sure, but you’re still going to school tomorrow,” he hears him say and wishes he was already there to share a conspiratorial glance with him. If it wasn’t the law, there was no way they’d make Luffy go every single day. But what use is it to tell him this tonight? He stays still in the hallway when Sabo continues. “Tell you what. If you’re older, we can give it a try. Just find a boat and sail as far as we can without getting caught.”  

 

“We won’t be caught! And even if we are, we’ll just fight our way through!”

 

“Yeah, we will. Like pirates.” Ace can hear the smile in Sabo’s voice.

“Yeah, and I’m going to be the captain and you have to do what I say.”

 

“No way. I’m going to be captain and I’ll make you and Ace scrub the deck all day when you eat all the food again.” Ace almost laughs out loud at that.

 

“I’m going to be so strong no one can me me clean ever!” Luffy answers dreamily.

 

Sabo laughs. “Where is Ace with the books, though? Didn’t we put them in the bags in the living room?”

 

It aches a little, to hear them banter like this. It’s not a bad pain, it’s the knowledge that they are just them. Luffy with his wide grin, who can never sit still and always looks for adventure. And Sabo, whose curiosity is insatiable, and whose eyes always twinkle boldly. He still remembers the little boy with the tooth gap who looked down on him from a tree and asked him if he’d ever been to the sewer market before.

 

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” he calls.

 

In his bedroom, Luffy is spread over more than half of the bed, arms and legs spread widely, smiling up at Ace as he enters. “Finally. I thought you set something on fire again!”:

 

“That was one time. One! When will you let me live that down?” He looks to Sabo for support, but he really should have known better, because he just grins, as if to say _This one’s all yours_ . He has not much space left on the bed, and hangs halfway of the edge, arms propped against the headboard in an absurd manner as to not keep from falling. Ace wished there would be a look that would communicate _You’re one to talk_ , but he can’t think of one, so he settles with pushing aside Luffy’s arms.

 

“I have to sit somewhere, crybaby,” he reminds his brother, who sticks his tongue out at the nickname.

 

“I’m not a crybaby, I’m big and strong now!”

 

Sabo laughs next to him. “You have a lot of growing left to do, Loof.”

 

After a fair bit of wiggling and adjusting limbs, they are all  fitted tightly in the Queen sized bed. Even Sabo has managed to gain some ground and now rests securely against Luffy, who lies in between them, squeezed in tightly between their two larger bodies. It looks incredibly cute (even if Ace would rather shoot himself than tell his brother that).

 

He looks down at them, at Luffy’s little feet and his own legs, where his jeans touches Sabo’s  dress pants. It looks like any other evening, like home, except that it doesn’t. The light is all wrong, throwing shadows in all the wrong corners of the white wall, which is far more bright than the red he painted his old room in. It smells different too, not at all like them, but like chemicals and dust.

 

It’s strange that they are here like this. It’s not at all how Ace expected his life to go, buried under staples of paperwork, following orders from a boss he cannot stand and bringing guys behind bars who are not at all different from him.

 

But when Sabo opens the book and starts to read, his voice dropping just the tiniest bit, sounding so sure and grown up all of a sudden, and Luffy giggles with glee when the Hispaniola sets sail for unknown waters, he feels that maybe, maybe it’s all worth it.

 

Later, when Luffy’s eyes long since have fallen shut and he snores softly in between them, Sabo and Ace lie sort of next to each other on the bed, still reading. They make a contest out of it, trying to give the characters the most ridiculous voices they can think of, trying to stifle their laughs behind hands. They keep on until they sink deeper and deeper into the covers, books falling to their chests. Ace’s lids feels heavy as the day of carrying boxes and providing Luffy and himself with immense amount of food catches up on him. Turning to his side, he sees the relaxed, drool covered face of his brother.

 

Out of impulse, just to give himself a bit more familiarity, he slips his arm around him, feeling his brother’s unruly hair tickling his nose. Over Luffy’s nose, he sees Sabo watching him with a look he can’t decipher, equal parts softer and more contemplative than he’s used to.

 

Unsure how to react, he smiles at him. It seems to be the right thing to do, because Sabo settles back on the pillows. Next to his arm there is a sudden heaviness and warmth. It’s Sabo’s arm, snug around Luffy’s slim waist. His eyes are closed now, the hair falling in his face covering up the scar on it’s left side completely.

 

He looks peaceful, Ace thinks and finds that that’s enough for him.

 

The tension of the day wanes from him and the calmness of sleep washes over him. The last thing he knows when his consciousness slips is how near Sabo’s hand is to his and he wonders how it would feel to have it even closer.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Come visit me on my tumblr @zorotrash or @fatfairy17 on twitter.


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